Pregnant woman fell about 50ft from Edinburgh landmark Arthur’s Seat, murder trial hears

A pregnant woman whom prosecutors say was murdered by her husband fell between 40 and 50ft from an Edinburgh hill, a court has heard.

Kashif Anwar, 29, is accused of murdering Fawziyah Javed, 31, in September 2021 by pushing her from Arthur’s Seat, Holyrood Park, causing her multiple blunt force injuries and ultimately her death, and that of her unborn child.

Anwar, from Leeds, denies all the charges against him, including one of acting in a threatening and abusive way towards his wife at a hotel in Edinburgh the day before the alleged murder.

Police Sergeant Alastair Paisley, 41, was a crime scene manager at the site of the incident and told the fifth day of the trial at the High Court at Edinburgh he estimated Ms Javed had fallen “between 40 and 50ft”.

Jurors were shown drone footage and images of the site.

The footage showed a cone on the side of the hill, indicating where Ms Javed first landed, and images of a tent which had been placed over her body on the hillside after she died.

Detective sergeant Christopher Edmund told the jury that mountain rescue had been called in to help recover the body as it was in an “extremely difficult location to get to”.

Ian Duguid KC, Anwar’s defence, told the court that during his client’s police interview shortly after the incident, Anwar said he and Ms Javed had left the summit of the landmark because it was busy and Mr Anwar thought they should go home.

Sabeen Rashid, 43, a major crime analyst, also gave evidence, going through a 97-page telecoms report with advocate depute Alex Prentice KC.

Pictures from Arthur’s Seat were shown, timed between about 8.06pm and 8.30pm taken on the phone attributed to Ms Javed, which included selfies of herself and her husband.

As part of the report, Ms Rashid told the court that a six-second call was made from the phone attributed to Ms Javed at 9.19pm to the device attributed to her father, and at 9.20pm there was a call to the number associated with Anwar’s father’s phone, which lasted one minute.

The trial, before Lord Beckett, continues.